Smart Talk – Chatting With Toddlers May Lead To Better Language Skills

It may be difficult to communicate with toddlers, who can’t speak yet… but don’t let that get in the way. A study published this week in Pediatrics found that toddlers with parents who spend lots of time listening and chatting with them, are more likely to have better language skills and higher IQ’s.

The families in the study were asked to provide day-long audio recordings for six months. The parent would place the recording device in a vest the young child wears. The software was programmed to automatically count the child’s vocalizations and the verbal stimulation from their parents. The children ranged in age from two months to four years old.

Those children then had followup tests of their language skills and cognitive abilities at ages nine and 14. The study found that frequent chatting with toddlers accounted for up to 27 per cent of their higher performance in verbal comprehension a decade later.